Data & Dialogue - a relationship redefined

Data & Dialogue, a relationship redefined is the first comprehensive book to describe in great detail the relationship between companies (the clients) and law firms that provide the legal services. For the past 50 years, ever since the early 1970s, the relationship has become more professional, but has fundamentally remained unchanged. Over the last decade - since the financial crisis - clients have been pushing for more value, with limited success. The use of advanced data analytics as it is already employed by the world’s most advanced legal departments, will eventually fundamentally change the whole industry. The book will describe in detail why data analysis and structured dialogue will drive efficiency and value, with many examples how data analytics are being employed. It also describes what the current status is of legal tech and where it will be useful and where it will not. The core of the relationship between companies and lawyers is value. It is hard to define what exactly value is and it has been debated many times in the past. The authors have developed the Value Matrix. This provides a workable model to establish what price-point can be considered good value. The book is concluded by describing what the future of the relationship will look like. The authors make a distinction between ‘creation’ and ‘production’. Creation being the unique expertise and brainpower of the lawyer and ‘production’ the execution needed to turn these ideas into documents. In the future the client will be charged for the commercial market value of this ‘creation’. All efficiency gain is in production while value lies in creation. Charging equal for production and creation will no longer work. Creation will have to be value priced – tying back to the Value Matrix.